The FreeBSD 7-STABLE branch saw its first point release today. Don't let the point release moniker fool you, though, as FreeBSD 7.1 comes packed with a number of pretty significant changes, such as support for OpenSolaris' DTrace, as well as a new, more efficient scheduler.

I may add the following: FreeBSD has - in opposite to most Linusi - an excellent attitude towards documentation. As a developer, this is a key term to me. Everything in the OS has a manpage: the commands, the conguration files, library calls, kernel interfaces, maintenance procedures and so on. Example files and additional documentation, i. e. the FAQ and the FreeBSD Handbook, round up this great work. All this documentation is available locally, right after installation. You don't need to grep through the Web and user-made Wikis in order to find an information related to the OS. The system's source code is very tidy and self-explaining, too.

In my opinion, this kind of documentation is essential for a good OS.

Furthermore, the OS is structured very carefully, well intended and tidy (read "man hier"). Everything comes from one team that carefully watches about what changes within the OS.

I also use it in my servers and in my house

Allthough most people deny the pure possibility, I'm using FreeBSD since version 4.0 exclusively on the desktop. Today, it's my primary OS. (My secondary one is Solaris.)

The new release 7.1 adds new features, more stability and speed to a system. I'm not trying to poke fun on any other OS, but when the version number increases, the speed usually goes down. With FreeBSD, it goes up! (I'm just sad about the "big toolkits" eating up this speed gain already...) I've been following -STABLE since 7.0 and have just put 7.1 on an older system to try (before finally updating my main system). It's impressing how even older hardware can do a really good job using FreeBSD.